So I'm trying with this book. Because it was recommended as clean fantasy by a friend. And it's definitely clean so far. And fantasy. Poorly developed fantasy with barely explained magic that seems central to their culture but is hardly in the story so far but whatever.
But these characters. Aly is always angry at the prince. For no reason. He walks in a room and her default response is to be put out by the sight of him with no history and no justification. Just, perpetual, irrational anger. And he can’t get over the idea that she killed his father which, to be clear, killed and couldn’t save are two WILDLY different things. Which is also irrational. It's like bringing a gunshot victim to a doctor, who works to save them but the person dies and blaming the doctor for killing them. Which does sometimes happen but is also IRRATIONAL.
And if those two things were the undercurrent of a story, I could probably handle them. But, like they are the story. No matter what's happening, new scenes, new characters, things happen, it's all about them being irrationally angry with each other. She walks into every scene like she has a right to be angry with him, which makes her come across as childish and petty with zero emotional control for a “master sorcerer.”
It's clear Black is trying to set up an enemies to lovers trope but it doesn't really work when the enemies angle has to be forced this hard without any rational base to stand on.
I mean, I'm only 29% of the way through it, so I keep hoping it gets better. But so far they have an entire kingdom to run but the only thing they talk about (over and over) is the king’s death.
Thankfully, it's right at that ⅓ mark that the story begins to get better. Aly and Red start actually having conversations and things other than rehashing the king's death happen. From that point on, the story is pretty decent.
The worldbuilding still isn't well explained for such a light fantasy. But it's consistent, mostly. (There's the whole thing with sorcerer's magic being based on truth so if Aly lies it breaks her magic, but then she lies and it doesn't break her magic that is never really explained.) The part that is consistent is the impact of truth and lies. While it's wrapped in a fantasy world there is real world truth to how lies poison and weaken people that are amplified in a way that showcases what makes fantasy such an interesting medium. By the end of the story there's still some ambiguity as to the lies and truths. I think it would have been stronger with fewer elements at play so that each could be revealed clearly to the reader. But it is the first in a trilogy so there's room for revelation that brings clarity in the next stories.